In honor of this debacle, Franktuary has created the G-20 Plummet. During the Plummet the restaurant will offer its Pittsburgh frank, buried under 20 additional condiments. Franktuary publicist Frida Marquetza states, “The extra condiments represent the insensitive visitors who disrupted Pittsburgh’s tranquil and prosperous everyday life. The suffocated pierogie symbolizes our city’s immobilized economy.”

I have a hard time thinking of 20 appropriate condiments to go on one hot dog, let alone how I would even eat it. However, everything that I’ve ever tasted from Franktuary has been amazing, so I’m sure if anyone can pull it off, they can.

They are doing an online scavenger hunt all this week to commemorate the launch. Check out their blog and twitter feed for more info and for more clues.

So what happened. Everyone stayed home if they could. A few yahoos “tested the bounds” of authority. (Duh, what do you think happens if you breach a perimeter, push a cop or act like an idiot.) The majority of the protesters near the “problem area” and the city were peaceful. There may have been a few aggressive individuals at Yonge and College. Sad that the man that was arrested there was a deaf man (who probably didn’t hear the instructions from a scared and agitated security force). Worse still is that this man is being held in a detention centre without being provided an interpreter!

Don’t know why the Police have not defused this. This group sounds like they are way too close, a block away from the “cage” now. I can only guess that they are trying to get some damning evidence, clear the bystanders, and then mobilize the Police counter-attack. I’m not about to get anywhere near Union Station or the Royal York.

Hey look, there’s a giant, international event going on and I don’t have to cover it! It’s like some weird kind of G-20 withdrawal….just kidding.

Anyway, the crew over at Vancouver Metblogs is covering the 2010 Olympic games (as I watch it on TV obsessively). Check it out, and good luck to everyone in Vancouver!

And by the way, does anyone have a good schedule I could print out showing what is when on TV? I can’t find a good one online, and the official site only shows one day at a time, and really isn’t very useful.

Ok, so I’m not really writing this until Wednesday, but I’ll back-date it to put it on a Tuesday, but really, I was late. I’ll go to detention now.

I think I might have thought that this would be a bigger post, at least when it was in my head. Really, I just wanted to thank PAT for how they handled the G-20.

It was stressful for everyone, commuters and anyone trying to travel especially. While the detours seemingly were posted later than I had hoped for, or thought they would be available, getting reliable information about the G-20 seemed to be an issue that just about every company had trouble with.

So with my detour map in hand, I headed downtown. The map actually proved very useful, as I said before, I work at the end of town near the Convention Center, so I’m not that familiar with the end closer to the Point. The map helped me on more than one occasion, and helped me find my bus stop to get home, even though I kept double and triple checking it.

I ended up the wrong side of the street, to catch my bus home (a different route too, so all kinds of new experiences smashed into one day), but since the Boulevard of the Allies had as much activity as a graveyard, I was able to run across and get on.

As I stood there, waiting on what was to be the wrong side of the street, I did call PAT, just to make sure things were still running smoothly. The customer service rep was nothing but helpful and very kind, a big thumbs up for that.

And of course, the constant e-mail and twitter updates, even retweeting messages from outlying transit agencies, kept everyone in the loop. I am glad I didn’t have to experience the total shut down of transit during the march for peace on Friday, but PAT seemed to take it in stride.

All in all, a commendable experience. Will it encourage anyone to make the switch to transit? Sadly, I don’t think so. With the TDP changes coming, and what will probably be the most noted, the fare increase, I seem to think that the deft handling of the G-20 summit will be lost in the PR shuffle. Hopefully I’m mistaken.

As promised, here is part three, the part where I talk about my day in the Golden Triangle for the summit. Pictures are coming in the fourth installment, I find myself with my camera at the moment (but using free WiFi at a Barnes and Noble!) and a fifth installment will go over how a “company” tried to scam me during the Summit.

It started, as most days do for me, with riding the bus into town. Not unexpectedly, the bus was almost vacant. Once we got past a couple stops on the East Busway, it turned out that there were two of us going into town. And for almost the entire trip, we pretty much flew into town. Until we got to the Arena. Then, we pretty much just sat there, crawling down Centre Ave.

I think the slow speed, the detours, plus the fact that there were exactly two of us on the bus all contributed to the bus driver’s surly attitude, not that I could blame him for it.

But truth be told, the delays allowed me to view the first of a recurring theme throughout the day. More after the jump.

I’m been ruminating (can that be used as a verb?) about the G-20 for a while, and I’ve had all kinds of thoughts, random bits of brilliance and so much mulling around in my head. It’s strange to think it’s practically come and past already.

My day in the Golden Triangle during the summit was uneventful in the traditional sense, but gave me even more to think about. After the jump I’m going to write about the lead-up to the summit, protesters, violence, the media, and probably some more stuff. I’ll have my own pictures (which I am sorting through), and if I can get my computer to work, possibly a short presentation of sorts, but that may be a ways off . See you after the jump.

Photos

Recent Comments

Move over, PedutoFox There is no way this can be real. How on earth does something like this happen?? Love it!

Wash your hands.Mike I haven’t seen them while I’ve been out and about (granted, I haven’t been in a school in...Eve I’ve seen these around Allegheny County for years…various schools, downtown businesses. It’s...

Only 72 days left…Fox I agree wtih you entirely. I have come SO CLOSE to blocking people on my Facebook news feed (as I’m sure...